Flea and Tick Money Savings Hints

Okay so I wanted to share some money saving information with you all and while I am sure that Merial and Bayer would not like me to I am going to let you all in on a money saving tip. I have worked for a vet for 8 years and we all do this with our animals and have clients with large numbers of animals we have do this as well. PLEASE NOTE I ONLY KNOW THIS IS OKAY FOR FRONTLINE, ADVANTAGE, AND ADVANTIX. ADVANTAGEMULTI AND OTHER PRODUCTS I AM NOT SURE ABOUT SO PLEASE ONLY DO THIS WITH THE THREE LISTED PRODUCTS.

First off let me say that you can NOT use ADVANTIX on cats, it will cause neurological signs and even death in extreme exposure cases. The drug used in it to kill ticks is fatal to cats tho it is safe in dogs, however you can use the following trick for all sizes of dogs just NO CATS when using AdvanTIX

Frontline and Advantage flea/flea and tick products are the EXACT same drug no matter if it is the cat or dog product and no matter what size. If you look at the package the drug percentages in each product is the same the only thing that varies in the Cat/dog sizes is the amount of the dose. For example, Orange Cat Advantage has 0.4ml advantage per tube and is labeled for cats under 9 lbs, Purple Cat Advantage has 0.8 ml per tube and is labeled for cats over 9 lbs, and the dog Blue dose has 4.0 mls per tube and is labeled for dogs 51 to 100 lbs. Frontline is similar but has a different dosing schedule but you can find out how much product is in the tube by reading the front of the box.

If you get the largest size Advantage or Frontline you can find the different size doses on the boxes and use a syringe to split a single large dog dose into single doses for smaller animals. Usually if you have dogs in the 2nd to largest weight range for the meds you can get 2 doses out of the largest size where as you can get about 9 doses of advantage for a cat under 9 lbs out of a dose of advantage labeled for a dog 50-100 lbs.

This does NOT work on heartworm prevention since the drug is in the chewable treats and is not nec. spread evenly throughout the tablet so splitting a 50 lb dose in half to treat two 25 lb dogs is not a good idea, however if you have a dog who is 50 lbs and you have 25 lb doses you can give 2 of those to a 50 lb dog and be okay, although this is more expensive than getting the correct size if for some reason you have extra smaller doses of heartworm prevention this does work that way.

Hopefully that is a tip that will save some of you money and who can't use a little extra money right about now? If anyone has any questions let me know, I hope this is clear but hopefully am able to clarify anything for anyone who wishes

The dosage thing is correct. My cat-only vet sells "great dane" Advantage split up into cat size dosage for a cheaper price. I get little Ziploc bags with 6 -1cc syringes (without needles) instead of a box of those stupid break-open tubes that always squirt on me. I like it waaaay better this way.

Personally, I think it's too much trouble to take those flimsy plastic tubes and try to distribute it out into smaller doses myself.

my vet told us the same thing - we have our own little mini cat rescue going on and it would have been wildly expensive to spend $17 per cat.. so our vet gave us the low down on using the extra large dog frontline for the cats. but you have to use it EXACTLY as prescribed.

we empty the contents of the extra large dog frontline into a little pill container then give 1/2cc to each cat. works like a dream. and where we buy frontline they give a discount for a 3 pack and since we have extra large dogs anyway... it really works for us.

It is actually 8 oz at 10%, you dilute the bottle with 50 gallons of water to make the 1% that other products sell.

You can also spray your coops, stalls, rugs, clothes and inside the house with it. For use on dogs, goats, chickens, horses, etc.

When I think of how many $55.00 gallons jugs of Pyranha (the same chemical ) I go through in a summer with my horse I could kick myself in the but! I wish I had found this one last year on Jeffers.!!!

Pyranha is 3% permethrin so I guess I only will get about 16 gallons for $5.99 if I make it horse strength.

PS At that price I can afford to use a nice additive other than just water. I think I will add a bit of Mane and Tail Conditioner to the water to make a nice fragrant emollient rich fly and tick spray for use on the animals coats. For inside the house, coops and stalls, maybe I will add a bit of Peppermint or Lavendar Essential Oil instead to make it an air freshener fly, tick/ flea spray. You may wish to substitute a different essential oil. Maybe rose, citronella or whatever.

PSS If you want to make it the consistency of Frontline maybe you could add a few drops of the active ingredient to a bit of glycerine and mix it up to apply to the animal's back like with Frontline. I think I will still make a spray though with Mane and Tail conditioner/water and brush it in the whole coat.

Thank you for those great ideas. I have three dogs and they are at all times covered in fleas regardless of what I use on them so I need help. Does anybody here know what to treat the yard with that is potent enough to kill all the fleas but won't harm my chickens or dogs. I have only treated my dogs in the past not the yard but it is not enough. I live in Houston, Tx so fleas are abundant almost year around.

Quote:For the spot serums- like Advantage- it's really important that the meds get directly on the skin and NOT go all over. This is to prevent ingestion by the animal, and it only needs to be in the spot locations to work well.

We use Frontline from the vet and it works wonders, even on my long haired dog who runs thru tall grass all the time. Just get it all the way to the skin. Also, I never knew this, Guineas supposedly keep the ticks under control. I dislike them, but may get some just for that reason.